The Minnesota Wild battled the Seattle Kraken in their 2nd game of the season.
2024-25 Minnesota Wild Schedule and Results
1-0-0 (W-L-OTL) (2 points)
Let’s get right to it…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Status Report
Each team held an optional morning skate Saturday. Fleury will start after Gustavsson made 31 saves in a season-opening 3-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.
Seattle Kraken
Status Report
Each team held an optional morning skate Saturday. … Daccord will start and make his season debut three days after signing a five-year, $25 million extension contract with the Kraken on Wednesday that begins next season.
Game Recap
1st Period
The Minnesota Wild came out with a little more energy in this game.
Just past the halfway mark of the 1st period, Marco Rossi won the faceoff at the left faceoff dot (to the goalie’s right) in the offensive zone but it went to Seattle D Adam Larsson but Kirill knocked the puck back to Marco Rossi who then sent it back to Kirill to the left corner then all of the Seattle Kraken on the ice turned into Wild fans and just watched Kirill as he skated beneath the goal line, surveyed his options then found his buddy Mats Zuccarello skating into the slot and he one-timed it past Seattle G Joey Daccord.
10:38 – Goal – Minnesota – Mats Zuccarello (2) from Kirill Kaprizov (2) & Marco Rossi (1)
Seattle Kraken 0 | 1 Minnesota Wild
“…Seattle Kraken on the ice turned into Wild fans..” meaning they were Puck-Watching or Chasing the Puck instead of covering or defending someone…
Seattle F Tye Kartye was right next to Mats Zuccarello as you can see in the photo above. Instead of covering an offensive player in the best place to score a goal, he veered off to his right to cover… nobody! He was reading or trying to read Kaprizov’s eyes instead of reading the play! Seattle Film Session on the way to Dallas? Kaprizov is Russian! You don’t just read a Russian’s eyes. Haha!
The Wild had a late power play and did everything but score on it. It’s safe to say the power play is still outstanding & will probably be even better this season.
Wild F Marcus Johansson is being physical. LOVE IT!!! Checking is a HUGE part of the game, kids! Learn how to do it on both sides of the game, delivering & receiving or evading a check. #ClutteredThoughts – Good Clutter so don’t DeClutter here!
The Wild got a late power play when Jaden Schwartz tripped Kirill Kaprizov behind the net when he foolishly tried to defend him! You Can’t Defend Kirill Kaprizov!
Kirill Kaprizov then put the puck in the net as time expired but unfortunately, it did not beat the buzzer AND… no video of it could be found. So sad! We know video exists! Where is It?
1-0 Minnesota Wild at the end of the 1st period. Shots were 14-10 Minnesota.
2nd Period
A Wild power play continued to begin the 2nd period and Matt Boldy just held the puck and waited for the right time to shoot..
18:54 – Goal – PPG – Minnesota – Matt Boldy (2) from Kirill Kaprizov (3) & Mats Zuccarello (1)
Seattle Kraken 0 | 2 Minnesota Wild
Love that the announcers pick on Seattle F Brandon Tanev, “Where is Turbo going here, though?”
Seattle responded 40 seconds later to get on the board on a pretty simple play of shoot the puck and go to the net for the rebound.
18:14 – Goal – Seattle – Jordan Eberle (1) from Jared McCann (1) & Brandon Montour (1)
Seattle Kraken 1 | 2 Minnesota Wild
Defense is difficult, especially when the offense is on the rush because you have to know where the puck is but also try to cover one or multiple players and depend on your teammates to do what you want. Coasting on the backcheck usually kills your chances of stopping anything. It’s somewhat understandable if you’re the 4th player coming back because you might have trailing offensive players to cover.
This play may have been stopped had Wild D Jake Middleton stepped up as Seattle F Matty Beniers received the pass in the neutral zone. He didn’t do that and Beniers skates through the middle of the zone so Middleton lets him go so he can cover Jordan Eberle but he kept watching the puck and didn’t get in good position to box out Eberle and clear out a rebound. Meanwhile, Wild Fs Ryan Hartman & Yakov Trenin coasted from the neutral zone to the end of the play and Hartman was right there to get to the rebound before or, at least, when Eberle was there scoring the goal so where would he have been had he skated instead of coasted? A step or two closer and maybe he could’ve prevented the goal.
5:30 later, Wild D Jonas Brodin had his legs taken out from underneath him by Seattle F Brandon Tanev but he was the one called for tripping! HUH? How? What? Zebras in the Wild are dumber than they appear?
So… that call can’t be challenged* so Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes just has to accept it and hope his team can kill the penalty…
*Should teams be able to challenge any call? Literally… any call? They still get one challenge but they can challenge anything! Would this call have been changed to a Wild Power Play instead of a Seattle Power Play if they could challenge it? Would that maybe have changed the game? Oh, boy! “Hey… do you have a Rage Room here?”
They didn’t and the goal looks like it shouldn’t be allowed either.
Is it kicked in… because Jordan Eberle moves his foot forward to deflect it in the goal so… isn’t kicking moving your foot to connect with something and deflecting is letting it hit your foot?*
*Here’s a crazy idea! How ‘bout goals have to go in off a stick unless it clearly just hits a player and goes in? So… an unintentional deflection? Why is it okay to deflect it in with your skate?
11:45 – Goal – PPG – Seattle – Jordan Eberle (2) from Andre Burakovsky (1) & Vince Dunn (1)
Seattle Kraken 2 | 2 Minnesota Wild
Broadcaster Anthony LaPanta said New York looked at it and called it a good goal. Okay? No explanation though! To the rulebook… and a future Game Notes article!
The period ended with the game still tied at 2. Shots in the period were 12-9 Seattle and a total of 23-22 Minnesota.
3rd Period
1:41 into the 3rd period, Wild F Marco Rossi got the puck at the blue line and Seattle just backed off of him and let him shoot but… they were also… PUCK-WATCHING… so none of them saw a Wild Russian sneaking in for a tip as Seattle G Joey Daccord moved his right leg to make the save and it changed direction! A Wild Russian? How do you like that?
18:19 – Goal – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov (1) from Marco Rossi (2) & Brock Faber (1)
Seattle Kraken 2 | 3 Minnesota Wild
Puck-watching is a problem, isn’t it? Geez! It happens way too often! How do we stop it? It’s like a bug-zapper to bugs…
“No! Harry! NO! Don’t look at the light!… I can’t help it. It’s sooo beautiful!… ZAP!”
66 seconds later, a lost battle had some Wild players out of position and a Seattle player ready to fire a one-time and the game was tied once again! This game!
Wild D Jared Spurgeon was going to get to a loose puck in the corner first so his defensive partner, Jake Middleton went behind the net to give him an outlet but when Spurgeon looked before he got to the puck, that option wasn’t available yet so he tried to just eat the puck rather than send it to nobody behind the net and he must not have like the option of Freddy Gaudreau at the half-wall. He ended up losing the puck battle and Wild F Marat Khusnutdinov went to help with the battle which left Seattle F Tye Kartye open in the slot for a one-time.
By that time, Jake Middleton was coming out to try to disrupt or block the shot and he may have screened Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury. It’s hard to tell.
17:13 – Goal – Seattle – Tye Kartye (1) from Brandon Tanev (1) & Yanni Gourde (1)
Seattle Kraken 3 | 3 Minnesota Wild
10 minutes later, the Wild had some time in the offensive zone. The puck came around to Marcus Johansson in the right corner beneath the goal line and he just let it go by to the other side of the net to F Matt Boldy. He saw Seattle D Will Borgen coming to defend him so, as a left-shot player, he caught the pass then skated by it a little and made a behind-the-back pass to Ryan Hartman in the slot and he caught the pass and fired a shot into the right side of the net under the glove of the Seattle goalie.
Go Get Your BOLDY Jerseys, Wild Fans! WOW!!!
7:27 – Goal – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman (1) from Matt Boldy (3) & Jared Spurgeon (1)
Seattle Kraken 3 | 4 Minnesota Wild
Alright, a 1-goal lead! Let’s keep it that way!
4 minutes later, the Wild had a delayed penalty coming to them because Ryan Hartman’s stick got caught on Brock Faber’s skate so Jordan Eberle tripped so Seattle had the extra man and a Jared McCann one-timer may have gone off of Marcus Johansson’s stick as it looked like Fleury reacted like it changed direction. It’s hard to tell from this view.
3:26 – Goal – PPG – Seattle – Jared McCann (1) from Ryker Evans (2) & Andre Burakovsky (2)
Seattle Kraken 4 | 4 Minnesota Wild
This one would need some FREE HOCKEY to determine a winner!
OVERTIME!!!
Matt Boldy made a great drive to the net to what looked like a game-winning goal for sure but Seattle D Brandon Montour made slight contact with his stick or the puck to make Boldy miss the net! WOW! That close!
More FREE HOCKEY… or a shootout, at least!
SHOOTOUT!!!
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Final-SO
Seattle Kraken 5 | 4 Minnesota Wild
Goals:
MN:
Mats Zuccarello (1); Matt Boldy-PPG (2); Kirill Kaprizov (1); Ryan Hartman (1)
SEA:
Jordan Eberle (1, 2 (PPG)); Tye Kartye (1); Jared McCann (1)
Assists:
MN:
Kirill Kaprizov (2), Marco Rossi (1); Kirill Kaprizov (3), Mats Zuccarello (1); Marco Rossi (2), Brock Faber (1); Matt Boldy (3), Jared Spurgeon (1)
SEA:
Jared McCann (1), Brandon Montour (1); Andre Burakovsky (1), Vince Dunn (1); Brandon Tanev (1), Yanni Gourde (1); Ryker Evans (2), Andre Burakovsky (2)
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Some Game Notes:
The Minnesota Wild played better in this game than they did in their 1st game with several players playing better individually too:
- Marcus Johansson – physicality? from Marcus Johansson… Checks stats…
- Yakov Trenin – more speed & physicality
- Marat Khusnutdinov – more speed, vision & better plays
- Freddy Gaudreau – speed, stick & physicality; this is the Freddy The Stick the Wild missed last season (injured on a big hit in Toronto from Ryan Reaves in Game 2 last season)
- The Top Line – the more time they play together, the better they will become… That Will Be FUN!!!
- Matt BOLDY – He’s sooo good… the vision… the hands… the compete-level… the skill…
- Physicality (or Clutter): the whole team! 14 hits in game 1, 32 in this game!
- Joel Eriksson Ek – Hit in the face by Adam Larsson’s elbow while going in for a hit, left the game, came back to the bench & one shift
Next up:
at the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, October 13th, 2024 at
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